Tag Archive: Andrea Stewart Cousins

Councilman Daniel Dromm said he’d been repeatedly bombarded with ‘anti-gay’ emails from Senator Ruben Diaz. The exchange had apparently gotten out of hand and Senate leaders had to intervene to cool things down.

[From The Wall Street Journal] New York City Councilman Daniel Dromm said in letters to Senate Coalition Co-leaders Jeff Klein and Dean Skelos, and Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, that an email newsletter from Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. was “harassing” him.

Mr. Dromm said Mr. Diaz ignored more than 10 requests to stop sending him the senator’s email newsletter, and is intending to “vex” him with views in the emails that Mr. Dromm said are bigoted against gay people.

The letters were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The online correspondence began in 2010, when an aide to Mr. Diaz asked an aide to Mr. Dromm for the councilman’s email address without explanation, Mr. Dromm said.

The councilman, a Queens Democrat, then began receiving the senator’s newsletter, which is sent from Mr. Diaz’s government email address to an undisclosed group of people.

At the time, Mr. Dromm was part of a coalition of city lawmakers lobbying the state Legislature to legalize same-sex marriage. Mr. Diaz, a Bronx Democrat, was one of the most vocal opponents of same-sex marriage.

State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. said he didn’t want to talk about the emails. Associated Press

It isn’t uncommon for lawmakers to send out regular emails, sharing to-the-point updates on their policy initiatives and whereabouts. Mr. Diaz’s emails are sometimes lengthier missives, in which the senator expounds on topics such as the Bible and personal travails.

A recent email from Mr. Diaz began: “You should know that back in Biblical times, there were two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah.” And it accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of “religious discrimination” against “practicing Catholics.” The comments came in response to Mr. Cuomo’s radio remarks that “extreme conservatives…have no place in New York.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo declined to comment.

In four letters to Senate leaders—the most recent was sent in January—Mr. Dromm said he couldn’t get off the senator’s email listserv and found the contents of the emails “anti-LGBT.”

“If Senator Diaz is refusing to stop sending me hateful messages, I am concerned he is also refusing to remove constituents,” he wrote.